Recently, the US Securities and Exchange Commission charged Trenton T. Shavers with running an illegal Ponzi scheme using the digital currency Bitcoins. In the alleged scam, Shavers promised investors that they would receive a 1 percent interest rate per day on their investment. Shavers denied the allegations and claim that regulators had no jurisdiction over the case because he was using Bitcoins and the SEC can only govern transactions that involve real money.

The presiding judge said that the case could move forward as the investments meet the definition of contract, and as such, are securities. Basically what this means is that the $4.5 million in Bitcoins Shavers collected as investments is considered true currency by US law.